Claudia Mincemoyer and the Better Kid Care team received additional funding from the Department of Defense to expand the Child Care and Youth Training and Technical Assistance Project (CYTTAP) initiative to additional states, conduct additional curricular training, further the development of Better Kid Care training modules, expand Better Kid Care to afterschool and on-installation settings, and expand professional development activities into catchment areas around installations and programs serving the Coast Guard and Defense Logistics Agency.

James Shortle, Distinguished Professor of Agricultural and Environmental Economics and Director, Environment and Natural Resources Institute along with Matthew Royer, Director, Agriculture and Environment Center both presented at the Penn State Ag Council held Thursday, October 16th at the Mountain View Country Club, Boalsburg, PA.

Jan Scholl, AESE Associate Professor 4-H Curriculum Specialist and Amy Paster (Life Sciences Library) received the Mary Nell Greenwood Award from the Extension Section of the American Evaluation Association, October 16, in Denver, Colorado. The award is given for administrative or program leadership toward outstanding organizational, policy, and resource contributions to Extension evaluation. The last Penn Stater to receive this award was Michelle Rogers in 2000.

Cathy Bowen, Professor of Agricultural and Extension Education
Consumer Issues and member of the PA Task Force on Economic Education and Personal Financial Literacy Education, testified in front of the Pennsylvania House Education Committee on October 6, 2014 regarding the importance of financial education in Pennsylvania schools (K-12).

Ted Alter, Professor of Agricultural, Environmental and Regional Economics and Co-Director, Center for Economic and Community Development has been invited to become an inaugural member of the Academy of Community Engagement Scholarship (ACES). Members were chosen by peers to be honored and to address policy issues of value to universities, communities, and engagement associations.

David Blandford, Professor of Agricultural and Environmental Economics, has been chosen to receive an award from the Agricultural Economics Society (AES) for Outstanding Contribution to Public Policy, Industry or the Society.
Blandford will receive his award at the annual conference held April 2015 at the University of Warwick, England.

Kristin Babbie, M.S. in Rural Sociology and International Agriculture and Development, interviewed Pennsylvania farmers and their advisors regarding their experiences and attitudes towards smartphones.

Congratulations to Shannon Monnat, Assistant Professor of Rural Sociology, Demography, and Sociology for receiving a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The purpose of this funding is to study the intersection of immigration status with social and geographic characteristics for Hispanics and its impact on health care access.

Two AESE graduates (Brandn Green, Director of the Place Studies Program at Bucknell Univeristy and Kristal Jones, Coordinator of the Central Susquehanna Affordable Care Act Project) initiate assistance for a community with Affordable Care Act (ACA) enrollment.

The cover story of the July 2014 issue of CSA News is a six-page feature about the Northeast Center's signature food systems project, Enhancing Food Security in the Northeast through Regional Food Systems (EFSNE). CSA News is the official magazine for members of the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America.

This summer Sarah Eissler, currently pursuing her master's degree in Rural Sociology and International Agriculture and Development, is running across the country with a group of college-aged students to raise money and awareness for young adults affected by cancer.

Joshua Duke, outgoing president of the Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association, recognized the outstanding service of Ted Jaenicke, associate professor of Agricultural Economics, with a formal proclamation, “Service for Coordinating the 2014 Program,” voted on unanimously by the members of the association at their annual business meeting in June 2014.

Brennan and two of his fellow UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) chairs from Ireland announced a major event to further a call to action for groundbreaking research, teaching and applied programs for the betterment of young people and communities worldwide.